Stratford High School Sports

Stratford High
School Sports
Term 3 and 4

Taita Exchange 2021
On Monday the 16th of August 66 students and 5 staff members headed off to Taita College in the
Hutt Valley.
After both of 2020’s school exchanges were cancelled because of lockdown, we were extremely
fortunate with the timing of our exchange this year to be able to get it done before another Covid
interruption.
Taita College are experiencing a downturn in their roll which meant they were not able to field some of
the traditional sports teams, nor a debating team. Whilst this had an impact for some of our students
not being able to travel for these sports, it did not exclude most as we have many multi-talented
students who belong to more than one team.
The exchange kicked off with a welcome in the hall where we, once again, witnessed the Taita
students’ beautiful singing harmonies and hospitality.
Then it was into the competition with Girls’ Football (won by Stratford), Boys and Girls Volleyball and
Theatre Sports (all won by Taita), and Girls’ and Boys’ Basketball (both won by Stratford) which gave
us a 3-3 tally before a shared dinner and a very stormy night sleeping on the school grounds, boys in
the hall and girls in the gym. On Tuesday morning we were again fed by the Taita staff and community
before the days’ proceedings.
First up was the B Netball which Stratford won convincingly, then the boys and girls Badminton both
won by Taita, overall tally 5-4 in Taita’s favour. With the Netball A and the 1st XV Rugby left to play we
needed to win both to secure the exchange trophy.
Our Netball team pulled ahead in the 1st quarter but then Taita made a good come back to catch up.
This was a trend during the entire game but Stratford managed to time their run well and win the
game.
Our 1st XV came up against a much bigger team who they managed to keep pace with in a very close
first half. However, Taita kept up the pressure in appalling conditions to increase their lead and
therefore win both the game and the overall exchange.
Following more food, speeches by team captains and the presentation of trophies by Taita’s newest All
Black, George Bower, we boarded our Tranzit coaches for home where we learned of the impending
lock down.
Whilst it was great timing to fit in our Taita Exchange, the lockdown and time lost from school means
we will not be able to host Otorohanga for our second exchange which was originally planned for the
7th of September.
This has been another disappointing year especially for our senior students who have not only missed
these exchanges for two years in a row, but also tournament week which is a great experience and

something they very much look forward to throughout their school life.
Unfortunately, however we need to accept that this is now the way we live and no matter how much
planning and preparation takes place we still face many challenges and hurdles along the way!!!

Inglewood High School Junior Exchange 2021
This took place over two days this year to keep the group numbers under 100 as per covid guidelines.
On Monday 22 November we travelled to Inglewood High School to play mixed Football, mixed
Volleyball and Netball.
Whilst the football was a one-sided victory to Inglewood, the volleyball was much closer. Tied at 1-set
all, and the 3rd set at 25-all they had to keep playing until Inglewood managed to get the two point
difference required to win the game.
The netball started off a very close contest as well but our girls managed to pull away in the 3rd
quarter to get a comfortable lead and go on to win the game.
Exchange score after day 1: 2-1 to Inglewood.

On Tuesday the Inglewood boys and girls basketball, and boys and girls rugby 7's teams travelled to
Stratford for the remaining games.
Our junior girls basketball team, who had been unbeaten all season, continued their good form with a
great win, while the rugby 7's boys had to work harder for their victory.
The junior boys basketball team struggled to compete with the Inglewood team but the junior girls
again proved very strong in their rugby 7's game with a win to Stratford

Final Exchange Score: 4-3 to Stratford
A huge thank you to Casey Eynon and Denise Kay for helping out with this exchange and also to our
senior students Arabella Barber and Matthew Jones for refereeing the basketball, and Roly
Brotherson for refereeing the rugby 7's games.

Otorohanga College Sports Exchange
Unfortunately, due to another covid lock down, and the pressure on senior students to catch up on
work, we again had to cancel our exchange with Otorohanga College. Hopefully we can get this up
and running again in 2022.

TSSSA Events
Many of the TSSSA events were either cancelled or modified to accommodate smaller group sizes.
Unfortunately this meant the seniors missed out on more opportunities to participate. We did have
junior teams however take part in Touch, Quick Rip Rugby and Cricket.
We also had students involved in a Modified Sports Cluster Day, hosted by Inglewood High School, for
themselves SHS and Spotswood College